By Chris Moon
A new Nebraska nonprofit organization has set its sights on calling new pastors to the ministry and supporting those who already are serving.
Scott Beckenhauer, lead pastor of Calvary Christian Church in Bellevue, Neb., founded The 10Two Project about 18 months ago out of a desire to fill the gaps left by the closure of multiple Bible colleges—highlighted by Nebraska Christian College’s closure in 2020.
The question was where the next generation of Christian leaders would be trained.
“That was on our hearts and minds,” said Drew Severson, a Calvary Christian Church elder who serves as a director of 10Two.
The nonprofit is named for Luke 10:2: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
Severson and Beckenhauer had ties with Nebraska Christian College.
The college in Papillion, Neb., shut its doors in 2020 after 76 years of training pastors. The college struggled with declining enrollment and couldn’t survive even after a merger in 2016 with Hope International University in California.
The leaders of 10Two said the closure brought to light the need for churches to do more to call and train pastors.
When 10Two first got off the ground, Beckenhauer created a pilot group of lead pastors from seven large churches in the region, along with the director of a campus ministry in Nebraska.
Beckenhauer said he met in 2023 with the pastors from the pilot group and asked them how many future church leaders were in the “pipeline” in their congregations. That is, how many people did they know in those seven congregations who were aspiring to vocational ministry?
The pilot group came up with just eight names.
That wasn’t enough.
“We were all seeing the same thing. As a whole, our local churches are not calling the next Christian leaders,” Beckenhauer said.
‘We Love Networking’
The idea behind 10Two is to put together a network of churches that are active in calling, creating, and caring for Christian ministry leaders.
“We love networking,” Severson said.
The nonprofit organization isn’t intended to be the single solution to the shortage in pastors, Severson said. But it is hoping to get more churches to “catch this vision” that the church can and should raise up the next generation of leaders.
Beckenhauer said the goal of 10Two is “to try to be a catalyst across our region to help more churches actively be doing these things.”
The nonprofit is seeking to help churches launch residency programs for aspiring ministers. Calvary Christian Church and many other large congregations have developed residency programs over the years. But Severson and Beckenhauer said more can be created, and those programs can work better together.
The 10Two Project also is serving as a connection point between aspiring ministers and more formal training programs—such as Ozark Christian College or Renew.org, which offers mentoring and training certificates for church leaders and elders.
The 10Two Project also is putting together a scholarship fund for Bible college students. And it has assembled multiple “covenant groups” for existing pastors—part of its effort to “care” for those currently engaged in ministry work.
‘Rhythms and Expectations’
But, of course, people still need to be called to the ministry, and 10Two wants to make sure that mission remains in front of its network of churches, which continues to expand.
Beckenhauer said he’s urging churches to pray for, identify, and encourage people to consider the ministry as a vocation.
“The one thing that churches can do that makes the best long-term result is to build into the rhythms and expectations of leadership that we are going to do this,” he said.
Churches, he said, can make measurable goals out of raising up new ministry leaders.
The work of 10Two already is paying dividends.
Thirteen months after that first meeting of pastors—the one that identified just eight future ministry leaders—Beckenhauer called another meeting of regional pastors. This time, 15 churches and ministries were in attendance.
The same question was asked: How many potential future church leaders are in the pipeline in those churches?
The group identified 91 potential ministry leaders.
“We’re just simply trying to be a catalyst to get churches to think about it more,” Beckenhauer said.
The 10Two Project has a website: 10two.org.
Severson and Beckenhauer said the organization has steady financial support from two churches and some private donors. They said more churches may begin to support the nonprofit financially in the future.
Other directors of 10Two are Scott Jones, senior minister of Third City Christian Church in Grand Island Neb., and entrepreneur Tim den Hoed, founder of MajorTalent.com.
Chris Moon is a pastor and writer living in Redstone, Colorado.
Author: Christian Standard
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I’m convinced if Lead pastors and pastoral staff would step into the Church’s 5th and 6th grade rooms 1-2 times a year and plant seeds of Pastoral calling into their young hearts, and tell life change stories, our Christian Colleges would be full of students being enriched, equipped, and educated in Biblical wisdom and ministry.
Trent: Yours is a fine idea beginning! How about having them teach 5th-6th grade SS all year long? Back in the good ol’ days, before ‘Lead Pastors and Pastoral Staff hit the fan, all the Preachers in central Indiana showed up at the church camp for any age’s weeks. They were the cabin dads, song leaders, Galilean/Evening Vespers preachers, team leaders, counselors, meal time devotions …and, most importantly, taught the morning Bible Study classes on varietal topics. The Preacher Pipeline began to dry up when the ‘we’ developed LeadPastors/Staff. How many of the local big name preachers still work the church camps? I know many by name, retired now, who never set foot, or any other extremity, in the local such camps! Just another nail in the coffin … one of many. ‘It’s a long and dusty road; it’s a hard and heavy load …’ Happy Trails! 🙂